The potential for vegetation restoration from soil seed bank in abandoned croplands on the hilly-gullied Loess Plateau, China

The results of field survey, germination and correspondence analysis showed that the soil seed banks density ranged from 900 to 6,467 seeds m at 0-5 cm depth and 117 to 2,467 seeds m at 5-10 cm depth, with species richness of 7-14. Early successional species dominated the soil seed bank, while later successional species occurred only at low density. The similarity between soil seed bank and standing vegetation was low. The most important variables discriminating community variation were soil water, extractable P, soil seed bank density and aspect. Soil seed bank alone explained 32.1% of the vegetation community variation. The potential for vegetation restoration from the soil seed bank is limited and it is recommended to transplant some later successional species into abandoned croplands to accelerate vegetation succession.